Album Review: GRMLN

Late last year, Yoodoo Park made his debut with Explore, a seven-track EP comprising dreamy, lo-fi tunes recorded in the young artist’s garage. The haunting melodies and shoegaze-tinged instrumentation of this release quickly categorized the Japanese born Californian with other bedroom pop projects, but Park’s freshman full-length, Empire, is set to disprove that notion.

Aspiring to evolve GRMLN, this record captures the sounds of a live band. Park recruited his brother Tae San Park on bass and friend Keith Frerichs on drums to help record an album that encapsulates a grunge-y, garage rock tone that people thought died with the ‘90s. As Empire opens with the gritty, reverb-drenched guitar riff of “Teenage Rhythm,” it’s hard not to do a double take and make sure you’re listening to the right album. These tracks are much more rock-driven than the whimsical offerings on Explore, lending comparisons to Superchunk or Jimmy Eat World rather than My Bloody Valentine.

Lyrically, Empire is Park’s personal journal as he continues to try to find himself. The 20-year-old wrote these songs between classes at UC Santa Cruz, and each one comes straight from the heart. “I lost control and hit plateau / I lost myself in my mind,” he admits amongst the chirping guitars and buoyant percussion of “Coastal Love,” and criticizes himself for being “so naive to think everything’s alright,” during the ‘50s influenced “Cheer Up.”

However, although these lyrics sound like the mopey musings of a teenager, there’s so much more to this album. The upbeat, pop-punk-tinged instrumentation juxtaposes with Park’s woe-is-me narrative to create an interesting dichotomy. There’s a silver lining to the hardships of growing up, and shimmering guitars, funky bass lines and romping drum beats prove it. With all but two of Empire’s nine songs clocking in at under three minutes, these urgent, straightforward tracks are perfect for summer cruising with the windows down. They emulate the feeling of being young and experiencing the gain and loss of love. So even when Park sings, “Time rushes out, pushing me away from you / ‘cause time’s running out for my life to start back new,” in the acoustic album closer, “Dear Fear,” it’s hard not to smile and think, it may not be so naive to think everything’s alright after all, because we’ve all been there.